The "e" in eIDs is really only as good as the services that the card
provides access to--without services, an eID card is nothing but a piece
of plastic (with a chip).  To enable a card to use services requires
software, namely something called middleware that interfaces the web
browser to the smartcard.  Maximizing service access and thus the value
perception by citizens, means to "eID-enable" as many environments and
applications as possible.

What will seem natural to most Open Source people out there, but
often less so to government organizations, is that a single
organization cannot easily support all desirable/necessary cases very
easily--this is a simple conseguence of the ever increasing scarcity of
resources.

Applied to eIDs, most governments provide eID middleware for the "major
platforms" which can range from only Windows to a maximum of Windows,
Mac OS X, and Linux on Intel.  Do you want to access an eID-protected
service from your mobile device running Symbian, or from some embedded
device that runs Linux on a Strong ARM processor, or even only from
Linux on PowerPC?--well, don't count on governments to help you out any
time soon.

So a key factor to using eIDs ubiquitously, and thus create value to
citizens, is to enable third, non-government parties to develop and
distribute middleware where it is missing. Unfortunately, this is
not possible in every European country.  While some national
eID projects have published their technical specs from the very
beginning, others have treated them as confidential and thus
prohibited third parties from filling in the gaps.  Considering that ID
documents are related to "national security" and that government
decision makers more often come from a legal than a technical
background, this is not as surprising as it may first seem to computer
security experts.

In view of the significant negative consequences of unnecessary
confidentiality, it is very nice to observe that decisions can indeed
change!  Italy was one of the European countries who considered the
spec of their eIDs confidential.  This has in the past prohibited the
support of Italian eIDs on non-Windows platforms.  Also, the current
middleware [that is part of the pilot project and may be replaced for
the general roll out] does not play well with Mozilla Firefox (even on
Windows). Thankfully, all these are now restrictions of the past since
the full spec was indeed published yesterday:

http://www.servizidemografici.interno.it/sitoCNSD/documentazioneRicerca.do?metodo=dettaglioDocumento&servizio=documentazione&ID_DOCUMENTO=1043&codiceFunzione=DO&codiceSettore=CI

I believe that this is the merit of many unnamed people, acting behind
the scenes, who used many ways and various opportunities, invested an
enormous amount of personal energy, to drop by drop hollow the stone
and remove the rocky mountain that blocked the way to freedom.  This
is the moment for gratitude and for encouraging others with the message
that it is not easy, but it is possible and at times it succeeds.

So what will the gained freedom bring us and the citizens who have an
Italian eID in their pockets?  Here is my take on predicting the
future:  In a relatively short time, support for the Italian eID card
will be added to OpenSC (http://www.opensc-project.org/) that already
supports most other European eIDs and the American PIV.  This will
provide multi-platform middleware for use by Firefox browers, Virtual
Private Networks, Secure Shell, Linux logon, and other applications.
Also, commercial players will more easily be able to provide
out-of-the-box eID-support in their operating systems or on their
devices (such as set top boxes).

I hope that this foreseeable positive development will become a visible
experience that demonstrates the benefits of openness and influence
those countries who still keep their specs confidential: The community
can amplify resources and thus achieve what a single player (in eIDs
mostly a government) simply cannot even hope to do.  So let us work on
making this a reality, let the community provide significant help in
making eIDs a success, and from time to time let us remind people that
it is openness that made this all possible.